Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains

62. Cyperaceae, the Sedge Family

2. Carex L. -- Sedge

52. Carex tenera Dewey

Tufted from short rootstocks; culms slender, sharply trigonous, 3-8 cm long, exceeding the leaves, rough above. Leaves 0.5-3 mm wide; sheaths white-hyaline between the nerves or green-and-white mottled dorsally, white-hyaline ventrally. Spikes bisexual, gynaecandrous, 4-8, ovoid to subglobose, 4-10 mm long, usually loosely arranged in moniliform, flexuous or nodding heads 2.5-5 cm long; bracts reduced, occasionally setaceous and exceeding the spike; pistillate scales acute to subacuminate, slightly shorter than the perigynia. Perigynia stramineous at maturity, plano-convex, ovate, 2.6-4 mm long, ca. 1/2 as wide, strongly several-nerved dorsally, few-nerved ventrally, wing-margined to the base, tapered or contracted to the serrulate, bidentate beak which is 1/3 to 1/2 the length of the entire perigynium; achenes lenticular, 1.2-1.7 mm long; stigmas 2. Jun--Aug. Wet meadows, springs, stream banks, floodplains, moist woods and thickets; frequent in ND, less common s; (Que. and ME to Alta., s to NC, OH, MO, NE and MT).


Carex tenera (from Hermann 1970).

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